ME
Chandler to oversee News at Ten return
* Leigh Holmwood and Mark Sweney
* Guardian Unlimited,
* Wednesday December 12 2007
ITV has appointed the editor of its Evening News, Alex Chandler, to oversee the returning News at Ten bulletin with Sir Trevor McDonald.
The new bulletin, which will be fronted by Sir Trevor, Julie Etchingham and Mark Austin, is expected to launch in early January and will precipitate a shakeup of the ITV1 peak time schedule.
ITV is expected to focus on one-hour dramas in the 9pm slot and reports have floated the idea of Coronation Street being shunted back an hour to 8.30pm in a bid to give them a ratings leg-up.
However, the move has been played down with one senior ITV source saying "there is a lot of information swilling around, most of which isn't accurate".
It is understood the News at Ten team has been geared up to go into action from as early as Monday January 7 with Etchingham - who was poached from Sky News - joining ITV at the beginning of January.
"It will definitely be sooner rather than later," said one insider at ITN, which produces ITV news bulletins.
An ITV News spokeswoman said no launch date had been confirmed, but added that it would be "some time in the new year".
Preparations for the return of News at Ten are already well under way with a dedicated team in place working on new graphics and planning.
It is also thought a new special assignments correspondent will be appointed to undertake big stories.
The News at Ten relaunch team are understood to be working on at least one "**** hot" assignment, with one source adding there would be more "Channel 4 News-style" reports.
The ITV News spokeswoman confirmed the programme would do more week-long special events, building on the 10.30pm bulletin's specials on climate change and Zimbabwe.
"We are preparing for the new programme and looking at ideas and the look of the programme," she said.
Chandler has been a successful editor of the ITV1 6.30pm Evening News, which won the Royal Television Society news programme of the year award twice under his watch.
He has already moved to take over the 10.30pm news bulletin in preparation for the launch of News at Ten with Jason Mills, one of the two current editors of the programme, switching to the 6.30pm news.
Chandler joined ITN in 1997 as Westminster producer before becoming deputy news editor of home coverage planning.
In 2001 he was made business producer and in 2003 was promoted to editor of weekend news programmes before joining the Evening News in July.
"The return of News at Ten is a vote of confidence in our award-winning journalism and proves there is a place for news at the heart of the schedule," he said.
"I grew up with News at Ten and the prospect of editing a programme with such history and which inspired so much trust is a truly exciting one."
Meanwhile, the head of the BBC's newly created multimedia newsroom, Peter Horrocks, told MediaGuardian that the corporation was not planning any "anti-News at Ten" stunts for when the programme launches in January.
"It absolutely won't be about chasing them with a more populist approach and we are not doing an anti-News at Ten campaign," he said.
"We are the market leader in news and we hope and expect to stay that way by the consistency of what we do in scheduling and editorial content.
"The fact they are only doing News at Ten four days a week still has an element of 'news at when' about it."
ITV executive chairman Michael Grade told MediaGuardian's Changing Broadcast summit in October that ITV1 would relaunch off the back of News at Ten's return in a move that had been planned for a year.
He said the return of News at Ten made "commercial sense for us", adding: "It makes every kind of sense for us when you see the 2008 schedule and how it fits in.
"You don't move one piece without everything falling apart. This is part of a huge strategic rethink to streamline the ITV schedule. It is part of a much bigger move."
The ITV director of television, Simon Shaps, said the focus of the ITV1 relaunch would be on new programming, although there were no plans to dump shows wholesale or change the channel's branding.
* Leigh Holmwood and Mark Sweney
* Guardian Unlimited,
* Wednesday December 12 2007
ITV has appointed the editor of its Evening News, Alex Chandler, to oversee the returning News at Ten bulletin with Sir Trevor McDonald.
The new bulletin, which will be fronted by Sir Trevor, Julie Etchingham and Mark Austin, is expected to launch in early January and will precipitate a shakeup of the ITV1 peak time schedule.
ITV is expected to focus on one-hour dramas in the 9pm slot and reports have floated the idea of Coronation Street being shunted back an hour to 8.30pm in a bid to give them a ratings leg-up.
However, the move has been played down with one senior ITV source saying "there is a lot of information swilling around, most of which isn't accurate".
It is understood the News at Ten team has been geared up to go into action from as early as Monday January 7 with Etchingham - who was poached from Sky News - joining ITV at the beginning of January.
"It will definitely be sooner rather than later," said one insider at ITN, which produces ITV news bulletins.
An ITV News spokeswoman said no launch date had been confirmed, but added that it would be "some time in the new year".
Preparations for the return of News at Ten are already well under way with a dedicated team in place working on new graphics and planning.
It is also thought a new special assignments correspondent will be appointed to undertake big stories.
The News at Ten relaunch team are understood to be working on at least one "**** hot" assignment, with one source adding there would be more "Channel 4 News-style" reports.
The ITV News spokeswoman confirmed the programme would do more week-long special events, building on the 10.30pm bulletin's specials on climate change and Zimbabwe.
"We are preparing for the new programme and looking at ideas and the look of the programme," she said.
Chandler has been a successful editor of the ITV1 6.30pm Evening News, which won the Royal Television Society news programme of the year award twice under his watch.
He has already moved to take over the 10.30pm news bulletin in preparation for the launch of News at Ten with Jason Mills, one of the two current editors of the programme, switching to the 6.30pm news.
Chandler joined ITN in 1997 as Westminster producer before becoming deputy news editor of home coverage planning.
In 2001 he was made business producer and in 2003 was promoted to editor of weekend news programmes before joining the Evening News in July.
"The return of News at Ten is a vote of confidence in our award-winning journalism and proves there is a place for news at the heart of the schedule," he said.
"I grew up with News at Ten and the prospect of editing a programme with such history and which inspired so much trust is a truly exciting one."
Meanwhile, the head of the BBC's newly created multimedia newsroom, Peter Horrocks, told MediaGuardian that the corporation was not planning any "anti-News at Ten" stunts for when the programme launches in January.
"It absolutely won't be about chasing them with a more populist approach and we are not doing an anti-News at Ten campaign," he said.
"We are the market leader in news and we hope and expect to stay that way by the consistency of what we do in scheduling and editorial content.
"The fact they are only doing News at Ten four days a week still has an element of 'news at when' about it."
ITV executive chairman Michael Grade told MediaGuardian's Changing Broadcast summit in October that ITV1 would relaunch off the back of News at Ten's return in a move that had been planned for a year.
He said the return of News at Ten made "commercial sense for us", adding: "It makes every kind of sense for us when you see the 2008 schedule and how it fits in.
"You don't move one piece without everything falling apart. This is part of a huge strategic rethink to streamline the ITV schedule. It is part of a much bigger move."
The ITV director of television, Simon Shaps, said the focus of the ITV1 relaunch would be on new programming, although there were no plans to dump shows wholesale or change the channel's branding.